RTL will not be pumping an extra £100m into Five's programming budget after taking full control of the UK broadcaster today, but instead is to continue its strategy of "smart investment" in US acquisitions and factual entertainment.

However, today's deal means that Five will be able to react more swiftly in bidding wars for hot new US shows, sports rights and the expected sale of Telewest's programming arm, Flextech.

The Five chief executive, Jane Lighting, and the director of programmes, Dan Chambers, now have only RTL to deal with when seeking extra investment, after the Bertelsmann-owned company bought out the other shareholder, United Business Media.

RTL has paid £247.6m for UBM's 35.4% stake in Five in a deal that values the eight-year-old terrestrial broadcaster at £700m.

"Over the past few years there's been a steady increase in Five's programming budget. That's highly unlikely to change," said the director of communications, Andrew Buckhurst.

"What we sell is audiences. It's not about just giving Five an extra £100m. It's about smart investment."

He said RTL would be looking for Five to continue with the programming strategy it had pursued for the last two or three years, with investment in US drama such as CSI and House and factual entertainment.

"It's up to Five's management to make a proposal to us [for extra investment]. If the management of Five make a commercial case, we will fully support them."

The broadcaster's programming budget this year is £190m - up from £170m for 2004.

However, its ratings growth has recently stalled, with the channel's audience share declining 3% in the first half of 2005 - which makes the need to develop a multichannel strategy to open up a new area of growth even more pressing.

Five is the only UK terrestrial broadcaster with no multichannel services and is being tipped as a likely bidder for Flextech's assets, including Living TV and a 50% stake in UKTV, which operates channels including UKTV Gold and UKTV Food.

The broadcaster also has the spectrum on digital terrestrial service Freeview to launch one or two channels, but currently rents this bandwidth to pay-TV operator Top Up TV.

Ms Lighting has said the broadcaster needs to develop a multichannel strategy and Five admitted earlier this year it was examining several options, including possibly launching a children's channel spinoff using its Milkshake TV brand.

Mr Buckhurst declined to comment about a possible bid for Flextech, but said the company was keeping all of its options open concerning Five's future.

"There are three options being looked at in detail: internal growth, acquisitions and mergers with businesses in the UK."